December 10 - Three-parent babies to soon be legalized in UK

Article: Cloning And Genetic
Engineering

In the United Kingdom, procreating is heading down a "slippery slope," some are saying. Soon, having a baby might no longer be between just one man and one woman. A new law in the UK would allow a man to procreate using the cells from two women using a controversial mitochondrial transfer procedure.

The procedure isn't designed for ordinary procreation but is reserved for serious cases of mitochondrial disease including muscular dystrophy. While scientists do not understand the root causes behind mitochondrial disease, they do understand that the conditions are always passed on from a mother's mitochondrial DNA. Some families lose child after child to these mitochondrial diseases that restrict the newborn from having sufficient energy to function. After all, it's the mitochondria of the cell that produce the energy. If a second woman with healthy mitochondria is brought in as a donor and her fertilized embryo containing healthy mitochondria is used in combination, then the disease can easily be prevented before the egg is implanted back into the mother's womb. Since mitochondria contain 0.1 percent of the total genes of a person, donating mitochondria means a child would contain DNA from three parents.

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